I haven't done a play-thru yet (I have a "proof of concept city" running unattended on my other computer at the moment), so I don't know how fun/interesting this idea/challenge will be. That said, the idea is to grow a city using only "natural growth", that is, births to the Cims already resident in the city at the time the outside connections are cut.
Here is what I've seen so far: if there is any way at all for incoming Cims to get to the residential areas -- even if it is by walking there -- then they will, and growth will be by influx + births. Thus, you can stay connected to the highway *exit* but not to the entrance. Similarly, you probably won't want to allow intercity passenger train or ship or air traffic, and certainly not if there is *any* connection to the residential areas.
The growth of the city will be affected by its initial population when the outside connections are cut and by the lifespans of your Cims. For example, since I long ago tweaked the settings for the "Citizen Lifecycle Rebalance" mod to cause the Cims in my cities to live a number of game-years more closely resembling real-world lifespans, this means that in takes approaching 20 game years for Cim children to become adults and have their own children.
In the "proof of concept city", there were @1205 households and @4000 citizens when I cut the outside connections. After five game-years, there are 1229 households and 4527 citizens. Meanwhile, as I had placed RICO residential assets totaling 2000 potential households, and there are 771 currently empty households, it looks like the concept can work.
Here is what I've seen so far: if there is any way at all for incoming Cims to get to the residential areas -- even if it is by walking there -- then they will, and growth will be by influx + births. Thus, you can stay connected to the highway *exit* but not to the entrance. Similarly, you probably won't want to allow intercity passenger train or ship or air traffic, and certainly not if there is *any* connection to the residential areas.
The growth of the city will be affected by its initial population when the outside connections are cut and by the lifespans of your Cims. For example, since I long ago tweaked the settings for the "Citizen Lifecycle Rebalance" mod to cause the Cims in my cities to live a number of game-years more closely resembling real-world lifespans, this means that in takes approaching 20 game years for Cim children to become adults and have their own children.
In the "proof of concept city", there were @1205 households and @4000 citizens when I cut the outside connections. After five game-years, there are 1229 households and 4527 citizens. Meanwhile, as I had placed RICO residential assets totaling 2000 potential households, and there are 771 currently empty households, it looks like the concept can work.
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